1Kindly indicate source when quoting from this release.The advance release calendar may be consulted at www.nso.gov.mt

Issued by: Dissemination Unit, National Statistics Office, Lascaris, Valletta VLT 2000, Malta.T. +356 2599 7219 F. +356 2599 7205 E. nso@gov.mt

16 June 2021 | 1100 hrs | 107/2021

Cinema Statistics: 2020

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Compiled by: Living Conditions and Culture StatisticsContact us: National Statistics Office, Lascaris, Valletta VLT 2000 T. +356 25997219, E. nso@gov.mt

In 2020, there were seven cinema establishments with a total of 33 screens and a seating capacity of 2,262 (Tables 1 and 2). Of these seven cinemas, two were situated in Gozo.

A total of 330 film titles and 18,733 screenings were exhibited in 2020, amounting to an average of 57 screenings per film (Table 4). Last year, cinemas registered a total of 165,475 admissions. Maltese productions, many of which belonged to the short film category, had 1,278 admissions with a total gross box office of €1,306 in 40 screenings. On the other hand, foreign productions had 164,197 admissions with a total gross box office of €1,078,215 in 18,693 screenings.

Admissions to digital 3D movies accounted for just two per cent of the total, while the majority of admissions were for digital non-3D films at 98 per cent (Chart 1). Last year, 216 fiction films were screened in cinemas across Malta and Gozo. Films falling under this category attracted 87.1 per cent of total admissions. On their part, animation films amounted to 29 and attracted 10.6 per cent of total admissions (Table 7).

During 2020, the most popular film titles were ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’, ‘Bad Boys for Life’ and ‘1917’ amounting to 7.7 per cent, 6.3 per cent and 5.2 per cent of total admissions respectively. (Table 8). In terms of age classification, most films shown in Maltese cinemas were rated as ‘12A’ and ‘15’. 26.1 per cent of the films projected in 2020 were rated as ‘12A’, while 25.4 per cent were rated as ‘15’. On the other hand, just 5.1 per cent were rated as ‘18’ (Table 9).

The running time of 56.4 per cent of the films projected in 2020, fell within the 76 to 120 minutes bracket. These were followed by screenings with a duration of 121 to 180 minutes, amounting to 29.4 per cent. As per type of screening, the ‘Live/Encore’ type of screenings, including operas, ballets, and theatre, had the longest running time with an average of 163 minutes. On the other hand, animation films were the shortest with an average running time of 77 minutes (Chart 6). With reference to the number of staff members, last year, cinemas were found to be employing an average of 102 persons, of which 72.7 per cent were engaged on a part-time basis (Table 11)

In 2020, cinemas in Malta and Gozo projected 330 different film titles and registered a total of 165,475 admissions.

Statistics in this News Release should be interpreted in the context of the COVID-19 situation. Due to the pandemic restrictions, cinemas were closed between 17th March and 16th June 2020.

2

Number of screens Number of cinema establishments

Seating capacity

5 or less 4 734

More than 5 3 1,528

Total 7 2,262

Table 1. Number of cinema establishments and capacity by number of screens: 2020

Note: Seating capacity in 2020 was affected by the the social distancing rules introduced by the Health Authorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Type of projection in theatre Number of cinema establishments

Number of screens

% of total screens

Digital non-3D Film 2 21 63.6

Digital 3D Film 5 12 36.4

Total 7 33 100.0

Screens accessible to persons with disability 7 26 78.8

Notes:1. Cinema establishments with theatres supporting both Digital non-3D and Digital 3D type of projection were classified under Digital 3D category. 2. The share of screens accessible to disabled persons is calculated over the total number of screens.

Table 2. Number of screens at cinema establishments by type of projection and accessibility: 2020

Type of ticketing facility Number % total

Reservation of tickets by phone 5 71.4

Purchasing online and pick-up at cinema 3 42.9

Purchasing online and print-at-home 5 71.4

Snack kiosks:

None 1 14.3

1 only 5 71.4

More than 1 1 14.3

Total number of establishments 7 100.0

Table 3. Cinema establishments by type of ticketing facilities and snack kiosks: 2020

Note: In the first part of the table, the count denotes the different types of ticketing systems.

3

Country of origin of film

Number of film titles

Number of admissions

Total number of screenings

Gross Box Office receipts

(€)

Malta 12 1,278 40 1,306

Foreign: 318 164,197 18,693 1,078,215

EU 53 7,343 1,110 33,437US 161 137,224 13,969 921,366Other 104 19,630 3,614 123,412

Total 330 165,475 18,733 1,079,521

Note: As from January 2020 the 'Other' category is also including the United Kingdom (UK).

Table 4. Cinema admissions, screenings and gross box office receipts by country of origin of film exhibited: 2020

98%

2%

Chart 1. Percentage of admissions by film projection format: 2020

Digital non-3D

Digital 3D

4

Country of origin Number of admissions % admissions

US 137,224 82.9

UK 9,849 6.0

Malta 1,278 0.8

Italy 3,809 2.3

Canada 2,668 1.6

Other 10,647 6.4

Total 165,475 100.0

Table 5. Admissions by country of origin of film: 2020

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500

Other

USA

EU

Malta

average admissions per film

coun

try o

f orig

in o

f film

Chart 2. Average number of admissions per film by country of origin of film

2020

2019

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Other

USA

EU

Malta

average screening days per film

coun

try o

f orig

in o

f film

Chart 3. Average number of screening days per film by country of origin of film

20202019

5

Genre Number of film titles

Number of admissions % admissions Average admissions

per film

Animation 29 17,482 10.6 603

Documentary 34 1,729 1.1 51

Fiction (Non-animation) 216 144,200 87.1 668

Live/encore screenings 43 1,401 0.8 33

Other 8 663 0.4 83

Total 330 165,475 100.0 501

Table 7. Number of admissions by genre of film exhibited: 2020

No. % total No. % total No. % total

Animation 49 11.2 11 8.6 60 10.6

Documentary 31 7.2 10 7.8 41 7.3

Fiction (Non-animation) 318 72.8 91 71.1 409 72.5

Live/encore screenings 32 7.4 15 11.7 47 8.3

Other 6 1.4 1 0.8 7 1.3

Total 436 100.0 128 100.0 564 100.0

First-time releases Re-releases TotalGenre

Table 6. Number of film shows by occurrence and genre of release: 2020

6

Rank Film title Country of origin Type Number of

admissions % admissions

1 Jumanji: The Next Level US Fiction (Non-animation) 12,735 7.7

2 Bad Boys for Life US Fiction (Non-animation) 10,411 6.3

3 1917 US Fiction (Non-animation) 8,526 5.2

4 Dolittle US Fiction (Non-animation) 7,555 4.6

5 Tenet US Fiction (Non-animation) 6,506 3.9

6 Playing with Fire US Fiction (Non-animation) 6,290 3.8

7 Sonic The Hedgehog US Fiction (Non-animation) 4,944 3.0

8 Frozen II US Animation 4,515 2.7

9 Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous US Fiction (Non-animation) 4,096 2.5Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

10 Spies in Disguise US Animation 3,701 2.21 Data on admissions is split according to month of admission and not the month of release.

Table 8. Top ten films ranked by number of admissions: 2020 1

0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000

Other

EU

Malta

USA

Chart 4. Average gross box office receipts per film by country of origin of film

20202019

coun

try o

f orig

in o

f film

average gross box office receipts per film

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Other

EU

Malta

USA

percentage total gross box office receipts

coun

tryof

orig

in o

f film

Chart 5. Percentage gross box office receipts by country of origin of film

2020

2019

7

Number of film titles %

'U' - Universal 41 12.4 'PG' - Parental Guidance 53 16.1 '12A' - Suitable for persons of 12 years and over, provided 86 26.1 that persons younger than 12 years may attend only

when accompanied by an adult

'12' - Persons of 12 years and over are admitted 22 6.7 '15' - Suitable for persons of 15 years and over 84 25.4 '18' - Suitable for persons of 18 years and over 17 5.1Not applicable / Unknown 27 8.2

Total 330 100.0

Number of film titles %

Up to 60 minutes 27 8.261 to 75 minutes 1 0.376 to 120 minutes 186 56.4121 to 180 minutes 97 29.4Longer than 180 minutes 19 5.7

Total 330 100.0

Table 9. Age classification of films: 2020

Table 10. Running time of films: 2020

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

Other

Live/encore screenings

Fiction (Non-animation)

Documentary

Animation

minutes

type

of f

ilm

Chart 6. Average running time by type of film

20202019

8

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Methodological Notes

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Totals may not add up due to rounding.

The advanced news release calendar may be accessed at: https://nso.gov.mt/en/News_Releases/Release_Calendar/Pages/News-Release-Calendar.aspx

The survey is dependent on the information provided to the NSO by respondents. While every effort has been made tominimise the extent of under-reporting, the NSO is not responsible for inaccuracies that may emerge as a result of suchunder-reporting.

References to this news release are to be cited appropriately.

The data in this release should be considered as final, although minor revisions may be necessary subject to furtherprovision of data.

Film details were verified with the Europa Cinemas and IMDB websites.

from foreign theatres; music concerts broadcasted from abroad; and art exhibitions on screen etc.;• a screening refers to the number of times a film title is shown in the Maltese Islands irrespective of the cinema

• a film title refers to a single film that is screened across the various cinema establishments;

establishment which projects it.

A cinema establishment is defined as a fixed commercial business installation primarily engaged in the commercialprojection of cinematographic audio-visual works (in 35mm and/or digital format using a minimum of 1.3K resolution),through a regular film programming schedule and ticketing system.

Information in this news release was obtained through a survey carried out among all active cinema establishments in Maltaand Gozo during reference year 2020.

In this survey:

• a film show, also includes feature films; short films; opera, ballet and theatre performances broadcasted